Winners: PlayStation.Blog 2015 Game of the Year Awards

The polls are closed, the votes tallied, and the winners selected. We asked you what the best games of 2015 were, and you responded in kind — with nearly 600,000 votes in total, this has been our biggest Game of the Year event ever! 2015 was a heck of a year for games, and 2016 is already looking just as bright — thank you for taking the time to support the titles that left an impact on you.

Here are your picks for the 2015 PlayStation.Blog Game of the Year Awards.

Best PS4 Game

The Witcher 3 got a lot of love this year, and it’s easy to see why. From its unbelievably massive scale to its engaging and unforgettable characters, CD Projekt Red’s opus in open world storytelling beat industry goliaths Bloodborne, Fallout 4 and even Metal Gear Solid V for the title of “Best PS4 Game.”

Editor’s Choice

Bloodborne
Nobody builds worlds with such grisly panache as From Software, and the fearsome town of Yharnam is arguably its most focussed and memorable creation yet. I poured countless hours into sheepishly exploring its streets in 2015, and loved every horrible second.— Fred Dutton // Social Media Manager, SCEE

N++
N++ lies somewhere between improv comedy and throwing yourself down a flight of stairs. And while it may be voluminous in its myriad masochistic challenges, it’s the balletic platforming and devious level design that coheres the experience into something irresistible. And oh so stylish!— Nick Suttner // Lead Account Manager, SCEA

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Master-class RPG design. Back in May, I wrote this tweet: “Finished a series of quests in The Witcher 3 that was probably more emotionally powerful than the entire story of any game I’ve ever played.” Months later, I can stand by those words.— Sid Shuman // Senior Manager of Social Media, SCEA

Fallout 4
Fallout 4 has everything. Great music. An engaging story. Robust customization options. Thrilling combat. A dog. It’s the type of game that you need to barricade yourself indoors for days on end to fully play. I absolutely loved it.— Ryan Clements // Social Media Specialist, SCEA

Best PS3 Game

Big Boss may not have quite earned top billing on PS4, but you can’t keep a good soldier down — Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain extracted enough votes to land at the top of the “Best PS3 Game” category. North American newcomer Yakuza 5 was expectedly well-received, and we saw strong support for Black Ops 3 as well as Telltale’s fantastic Tales from the Borderlands.

Editor’s Choice

Teslagrad
I keep coming back to Teslagrad as one of the most thoughtful, quietly clever games I played last year. Its weird fairytale world held just enough mystery without overplaying its hand, and it felt super tight when it could have felt short. Just a really nice puzzle-platformer that deserves some love among the heavy-hitters.— Nick Suttner // Lead Account Manager, SCEA

Helldivers
Helldivers catapulted Swedish studio Arrowhead into a new echelon that redefines the top-down squad shooter. An intoxicating blur of snarky satire, team kills, and cape twirling. All hail Super Earth!— Sid Shuman // Senior Manager of Social Media, SCEA

Best PS Vita Game

Like its larger, more stationary siblings, PS Vita had another great year — and one of the most diverse sets of winners in this year’s awards. It’s always nice to see Persona on a Game of the Year list!

Editor’s Choice

Geometry Wars 3
I’ve still got the calloused groove in my thumb to bear witness to the amount of time I spent with this one. Hugely generous with its content, and packed full of clever twists on a classic formula, it monopolised my PS Vita this year— Fred Dutton // Social Media Manager, SCEE

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
One of the most rewarding games I played this year, Denaton’s macabre follow-up treads edgy new narrative ground. The characters, the soundtrack, and the visceral combat merge in an almost hallucinatory experience.— Sid Shuman // Senior Manager of Social Media, SCEA

Shovel Knight
A love letter to the golden age of 8-bit gaming, Yacht Club’s inaugural effort wears its inspirations on its sleeve. It forges its own path though, bringing new ideas to one of gaming’s oldest genres and never falling into the trap of imitation. By story’s end, this unlikely horned hero had me laughing, cheering, and even tearing up a bit. For shovelry!— Justin Massongill // Social Media Manager, SCEA

Best Story

Telling an effective story is one thing, but doing so when the audience has direct influence over how it unfolds is a very special skill. The team at CD Projekt Red shone especially bright this year, including in the realm of interactive storytelling, but you showed lots of support for Dontnod, Supermassive and Kojima Productions as well.

Editor’s Choice

Bloodborne
Did you read the extraordinary 90-page lore fan essay that did the rounds last summer? I love how creator Hidetaka Miyazaki hides his narrative in the background – unpicking its ambiguous mysteries is a fascinating game-within-a-game.— Fred Dutton // Social Media Manager, SCEE

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Rapture is the story of a small town devastated by… something. But for me, the game wasn’t ultimately about that something – rather, it’s about the more intimate, human moments shared by its citizens in times of tragedy. And while its script and voiceover are excellent, it’s the environmental storytelling that truly stands out – wandering the silent streets and exploring the homes of the departed; a snapshot of small-town culture, forever frozen in time.— Nick Suttner // Lead Account Manager, SCEA

Soma
I thought about Soma for weeks after watching the credits roll across the screen. A masterful endeavor in atmosphere, Soma poses intense philosophical questions to its audience — and does so with emotional poignancy. One conversation late in the narrative left my heart broken, and I’ll never forget how that felt.— Ryan Clements // Social Media Specialist, SCEA

Tales From the Borderlands
Believe it or not, I just finished playing Telltale’s bold first step into the Borderlands universe while putting the finishing touches on this post, and I’m glad I did. Not only does it feature the most honest-to-goodness hilarious writing I saw in a game in 2015, I think it’s Telltale’s best work yet. Long live Loader Bot!— Justin Massongill // Social Media Manager, SCEA

Best Soundtrack

Video game music sometimes gets overlooked in favor of other, more direct aspects of game design, so we wanted to make sure it gets proper recognition in this year’s GotY discussions. Once again, Geralt of Rivia earned the most votes from our readers, but not without D-Dog nipping at his heels.

Editor’s Choice

Axiom Verge
As much as I adore N++’s opus of licensed electronic jams, I have to give the nod to Axiom Verge – the score is wholly original, and as with everything else in the game, crafted entirely by its sole creator, Thomas Happ. His score maintains every inch of creeping sci-fi strangeness that runs through the rest of the game, the perfect compliment to being trapped in a suffocating alien world.— Nick Suttner // Lead Account Manager, SCEA

N++
There was a lot of great game music out there this year (I feel terrible not giving this one to Shovel Knight), but I’ve gotta hand it to the team at Metanet for their work here. N++ as a whole is an exercise in deliberate, thoughtful curation and design, and its soundtrack is a reflection of that same design philosophy. Perhaps the chillest collection of tunes in 2015, I keep finding myself with these tracks on loop to help me power through big projects.— Justin Massongill // Social Media Manager, SCEA

Best Digital Game

No contest here. Rocket League was a force of nature when it debuted a few months ago, catapulting to the top of PS4 owners’ download lists… and our hearts. Daily Rocket League matches are still a thing at SCEA HQ, and based on your votes it looks like we’re not alone.

Editor’s Choice

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
Call me old-fashioned, but I like my FPSes linear, single-player only and story-based! It was slim pickings on that front in 2015, but MachineGames turned in a fine snack-sized prologue to its excellent 2014 shooter.— Fred Dutton // Social Media Manager, SCEE

SOMA
Frictional Games released one of 2015’s most inspired accomplishments: an experiment into the nature of human consciousness that filled me with existential dread. I can’t wait to see what this team tackles next.— Sid Shuman // Senior Manager of Social Media, SCEA

Nuclear Throne
Why do I love a game that tortures me so? Nuclear Throne ties together lightning-fast combat, strategic weapon selection, and a brutal difficulty into one addictive roguelike. Infuse that with character-specific abilities and Nuclear Throne is the type of hole you could fall down for hours.— Ryan Clements // Social Media Specialist, SCEA

Axiom Verge
Tom Happ clearly and completely understands the type of gamer who wants to play a game like Axiom Verge, and his five-year project plays to that audience spectacularly. Oh, right! This game was made by ONE GUY. No big deal.— Justin Massongill // Social Media Manager, SCEA

Best Multiplayer

2015 saw strong entries in the multiplayer arena, from the newest entries in the Call of Duty and Destiny series to the launch of DICE’s blockbuster Star Wars Battlefront. Psyonix’s Rocket League took us by surprise with its instantly accessible and endlessly addictive take on vehicular football, landing enough votes for a shiny Gold Trophy.

Editor’s Choice

Rocket League
Rocket League is great for a lot of reasons, but most of all because it’s a real sport. It’s entirely skill-based, and it’s a total blast whether you’re kicking the ball around the field with some non-gaming friends or flying through the skies, teeth gritted, against seasoned pros. It’s accessible, polished, infinitely replayable, and above all, fun. Everything you (or at least I) could want in a multiplayer game.— Nick Suttner // Lead Account Manager, SCEA

Call of Duty Black Ops 3
For my money, Call of Duty still boasts the most satisfying feel of any multiplayer shooter. Add in Treyarch’s best Zombies co-op yet and a rock-solid four-player campaign, in regular and Nightmare flavors, and you’ve got a game you could play for years.— Sid Shuman // Senior Manager of Social Media, SCEA

Destiny: The Taken King
It’s all about the little things. Destiny: The Taken King may have sweeping battles and a ferocious new enemy, but it was the many small improvements Bungie made to the Destiny universe that makes The Taken King so special. The same can be said for its highly addictive multiplayer. There are countless, fun little moments built into one singular package.— Ryan Clements // Social Media Specialist, SCEA

Most Anticipated 2016

And here we are! A new year, with dozens of new games already announced and on track for release. We don’t yet know everything that’s going to be out by the end of the year, but things are already looking pretty darned good.

Please note: any games that won an award in last year’s GOTY festivities were ineligible to win in the same category again this year. This rule was mostly relevant to this category, which is why we’re putting this lil’ disclaimer here.

Paragon
Epic unveiled Paragon at PlayStation Experience last year with a jaw-dropping trailer — and that was all I needed to begin my jittery anticipation for this ambitious new MOBA. Anything with black hole-inducing super attacks deserves sustained applause.— Ryan Clements // Social Media Specialist, SCEA

Horizon: Zero Dawn
Dark Souls III is singing its siren song, but ultimately I have to give the nod to Horizon: Zero Dawn. Guerrilla Games’s bold decision to move away from the guns-and-grit of Killzone to this colorful, lush world populated by biomechanical creatures already looks like it’s going to pay off in spades.— Sid Shuman // Senior Manager of Social Media, SCEA

The Witness
I played an early build of The Witness for around 50 hours a few months ago, going so far as to actually finish the game. So then, it certainly says something that the experience I’m most looking forward to in 2016 is playing it again.— Justin Massongill // Social Media Manager, SCEA

Best Free PS Plus Game

PlayStation Plus members got dozens of games as part of their subscription this year, but there was a clear favorite come voting time: Rocket League positively decimated the competition in this category, proving that it’s not the size of the team that made the game — it’s how many rocket-powered battle cars they have in it.

Editor’s Choice

OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood
Roll7 improved on its already-phenomenal 2014 breakout hit in every way. Can’t wait to get my hands on Not A Hero!— Fred Dutton // Social Media Manager, SCEE

Gauntlet: Slayer Edition
Clearly, Rocket League is the favorite here. But I will buck the trend and highlight this underappreciated gem from Arrowhead, a frenetic multiplayer-focused dungeon crawler that does the classic original proud.— Sid Shuman // Senior Manager of Social Media, SCEA

OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood
Gotta agree with Fred here. The original OlliOlli was one of my favorite games on PS Vita, and the fact that its better-in-every-way sequel was free on PS Plus at launch was a slam-dunk for the plucky team at Roll7. These guys have a bright future ahead of ’em.— Justin Massongill // Social Media Manager, SCEA

Best Expansion

Expansions and DLC have been evolving over the course of the generation. Sometimes they stick to a more traditional plan and add new gear or missions, other times they add entirely new chapters to a game’s campaign. Heck, sometimes they launch for free! The voting results were encouragingly diverse, rewarding various methods of expansion (but surprise, The Witcher 3 took home the most votes).

Editor’s Choice

Bloodborne: The Old Hunters
In which From Software provides an irrefutable answer to Shakespeare’s 500-year-old poser, “Can one desire too much of a good thing?”— Fred Dutton // Social Media Manager, SCEE

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward
Heavensward, above all else, demonstrated a thematic cohesion in nearly every facet of its colossal (perhaps draconic) scope. Story, music, class design, and quests were spun together with aplomb, ensuring that Final Fantasy XIV remain a dominant force in the MMO landscape for years to come.— Ryan Clements // Social Media Specialist, SCEA

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward
Another category where someone gets to my pick before I do. It’s okay though: I initially convinced Ryan to play FFXIV in the first place, so my work here is done. Kudos to Naoki Yoshida and his team on a massive, Eorzea-altering expansion that I can unreservedly say is worthy of my time. Hundreds and hundreds of hours of my time.— Justin Massongill // Social Media Manager, SCEA

Studio of the Year

Finally, Studio of the Year. We’ve been rewarding specific games up until this point, but let’s take a moment to consider that they’re all made by teams of people. People who chose this medium and work tirelessly so we can escape into their worlds, or experience their stories… or just have fun. CD Projekt Red and The Witcher 3 were the talk of the industry this year, and for good reason. This unassuming team managed to earn more votes than the teams behind Fallout 4, Bloodborne and even Metal Gear Solid V. Bravo.

CD Projekt Red

Bethesda Game Studios

From Software

Kojima Productions

Honorable Mentions: Square Enix, Treyarch

Editor’s Choice

From Software
Not only did the supremely diligent Tokyo-based outfit release the GOTY and announce the imminent release of Dark Souls III, it also found time to reward the faithful with the hugely under-rated Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin on PS4.— Fred Dutton // Social Media Manager, SCEE

Psyonix
Psyonix made a brilliant gamble in retooling their PS3 cult hit (Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars) for the eSports generation, and the result — Rocket League — is a triumph of accessible, competitive action. They stuck to their guns, and had the faith and foresight that success would follow. It did.— Nick Suttner // Lead Account Manager, SCEA

Kojima Productions
If not this year, then when?— Sid Shuman // Senior Manager of Social Media, SCEA

Lol Yeah, same here. Problem is, I never played the first one. Not really a PC gamer. And I never could get into the second one, I tried a few times. But this one, I’ve been told, is not a port but built from the ground up for consoles. So I will give it a try once I finish up some of the other games I’m working on.

I love how this awards not only tell about how rewarding and loved this titles are but also how much they tell you need to play them if you haven’t already.
Adding those you missed on the list and making this awesome 2016 line up even bigger and better :)

You really should. It’s not only the game of the year, but it’s also one of the best games ever made, IMO. The level of detail put into that game shows a an incredible amount of effort and dedication that only the best games developers put on their games.

Also, don’t be put back by it being “the third” game of the series. After doing much research, I found out that many of the main story topics are related to things from the novels and not from the other 2 games. So, whenever I saw that Geralt reacted as if he’s meeting an old time friend, I researched and noticed that it would be almost the same if I had played the other two.

Thw Witcher 3 IS an awesome game. And as for not playing the first one, neither have I. I got a chance to play the second one on last gen, and it does add a few more details. But, you can play 3 without any prior Witcher experience and still enjoy it, and even understand most of what goes on in the story. I haven’t had a chance to play the DLC, but even without that, I still enjoyed the game immensely. I had a hard time putting it down until I reached that final blow! I agree wholeheartedly with my fellow players, The Witcher 3 was definitely one of the best games of 2015, and one of the best games to hit the PS4 thus far.

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture has the prettiest soundtrack I may have ever heard in any video game. The game was great, but the soundtrack is even better. I’m saddened that it didn’t even make it to the top 4 in the Soundtrack category.

I’m glad I am not the only one who thinks this. I’m honestly shocked it didn’t make the top 4 either. It’s a very underrated game. A lot of people pushed it aside though calling it “walking simulator.”

I was blown away by that too… I must admit, I know nothing about the Dark Souls franchise, but seing it seems to be another hack and slash clone… makes me wonder what people are looking for in gaming nowadays. I mean… how the hell does it even compare in terms of quality when you think about Uncharted 4….

Right?!?!?! I searched the page just to see if I was crazy but no mention of Uncharted except in the comments. In there I found the answer that makes sense BUT a **NOTE** could have been added. Uncharted 4 was listed as the 2015 most anticipated title since it was suppose to release in 2015. The push back makes in “Uneligible” (which I know its ineligible but want it to be like Un-charted) for this year.

Dude dude dude. What kinda rock are you living under. Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, these games are known as some of the most soul crushingly difficult games you can play.

The only time it is “Hack N Slash” is when you’re so pro at the game that you know every movement, every attack range, every timing, and have it mastered and even then 1 mistake can take you down. These games are Dodge, Parry, Ripsote, and then maybe a slash or jab in there.

Pick one up for cheap, and be prepared to spend 3 or 4 hours learning the basic mechanics, because in this game running around a brand new corner, probably means, dying and spending 10-30 minutes getting back to where you were without dying, or else you lose all your currency you need to get better weapons, upgrades, and stats. Which doesn’t matter anyway if you don’t have the skill to handle enemies.

Yeah, everyone voted for The Witcher 3 with it’s boring combat and dull story that wasn’t that great.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great game and I enjoyed it but Bloodborne gave me much more hours and fun.

@Strangeheaven You’re getting into “troll comment” territory. You’d have to at least define what you mean by cheap gameplay. I mean that’s one of the most well designed combat mechanics around. People look down on the cane, but if you’re good with the Cane (like I got) you can go most of the game with it and it alone.

@Welmosca. Bloodborne by comparison has no writing (it has writing just by comparison it doesn’t)

The Witcher is based off of a novel series. So, it had better have good writing, where as Bloodborne is about cryptic, and underwritten. Witcher is a story for it’s actual story, where as the Bloodborne story is about the choices you as a player make and about putting all the puzzle pieces they give you into a deep and coherent narrative.

While Witcher 3 has quests, Bloodborne has events. Events like helping a little girl, finding out what happened to her parents, deciding whether or not to tell her, so on and so fourth. I don’t want to spoil it but Bloodborne’s story is a puzzle that must be deciphered Sherlock Holmes style and by more than 1 run through.

Feeling the same way. I mean, how could Witcher 3 win best soundtrack? I could understand GOTY, but its soundtrack is utterly forgetful. It feels like people voted for it in a lot of the categories simply because it was their GOTY.

Agreed. Bloodborne all the way! I enjoyed The Witcher, but the detail of Bloodborne, the vast lore, everything about it. Just amazing. Wonderful soundtrack too. I really hope From Software is working on Bloodborne 2.

Witcher 3 deserved what it got. That game came highly recommeded and rightfully so. Everything about it is great and you really don’t have to have played any of the others to enjoy it.

Bloodborne is not robbed from what I was told. Was told it was like Dark Souls but better. And it is much better. You do have to study each monster to learn their moves and that makes it easier to kill. But with patience you can achieve that. You can’t just run up there and shoot or whack away and think you will defeat them. It won’t work. With this game time and patience are going to be your friend.

Yet others weren’t too mainstream? The games I’d say that are mentioned which aren’t mainstream are Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture and Life Is Strange. Both awesome games with great soundtracks. Glad to see them making it into the top 4 in some cases but still not the credit they deserve.

you thought Until Dawn was ‘mainstream’? that game landed with a whisper and was practically so indy even Nick would play it. it was a real surprise to me since it was a PS move game originally that I had zero interest in but picked up for halloween that it was as good as it was. it had a better story than most and the collectables added to the story (rare, usually they are just tedious). I would say that was my surprise game of the year since I thought it would be crap but it was not just good but really great.
it is like the opposite of fallout which got great reviews and a month later everyone concedes it is actually meh.

I did not vote this year, because at voting time I had only played one 2015 game worth mentioning.. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Really loved it, but I felt it would be unfair to vote when I have nothing to compare it to. My backlog is REAL. (Oh, I played Yakuza 5 in Japanese in 2014 so I guess I could’ve voted for that too.) I just started playing Witcher 3, super hyped to play more!

Really The Witcher 3. It wasn’t that great. Once again the PS BLOG guys have a one sided GOTY. This exact thing happened the year Bioshock Infinite was out and that game sucked really bad. I’m surprised that they didn’t nominate spelunky.

To put it bluntly: most of the readers of this blog have very… limited tastes. Open World Western-style RPGs and Shooters will ALWAYS DOMINATE on this blog because the fans can’t see beyond those genres. It’s kind of sad, but oh well.

MGS was technically a retail game but it was just a glorified demo. TWD and Rocket League were the only indie games on that list, and they were pretty far from the typical sidescroller/roguelike games that dominated the PS+ lineup last year. I think the list shows that people are interested in getting more “full” games from PS+.

Well deserved! The Witcher 3 was and still is the best game on PS4 right now! And I’m a die hard Dragon Age and Fallout 4 fan but Witcher had one of the the greatest stories I’ve ever been engaged in. Even the side quests were deeper than most of todays games’ stories combined! The combat and leveling system were perfect as any RPG could be. I don’t believe anyone who says the story sucks actually played the game or just didn’t understand it…This has been an amazing year for RPG’s!

It honestly blows my mind that “Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture” didn’t even make the top 4 in the Best Soundtrack category or even an honorable mention. Gamers these days honestly have no music taste. So many people wrote that game of as “walking simulator” and didn’t even give the game a chance. That really makes me sad.

And then there are those of us who tend to like “walking simulators” and still think Rapture was an over hyped poorly designed example of one. The music was great, so I can agree with that. And some of the visuals were mesmerizing (the night scenes in between areas). But even given its genre I thought the game itself was dreadfully boring and the story not all that engaging. Personally, while I am surprised that it didn’t get into the best soundtrack top 4, I also think that’s the only one it deserved to be anywhere near.

I’m surprised that Final Fantasy XV didn’t make the “most anticipated 2016” list. The first trailer came out in 2006, which can be seen here in HD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVQDu_Zr5wY A lot of things have changed in terms of what we expect out of this game, but still, the level of excitement for this game, that I’ve seen, might even come close to that of the Final Fantasy 7 remake.

Note: It was originally going to be named Final Fantasy Versus XIII, but they changed it a few years ago to Final Fantasy XV.

That’s a little disappointing that witcher 3 won all those. Its a great game but Iam so sick and tired of all these open world games. The story gets forgotten after several hours of wondering around aimlessly.

The main story questline is normally at the top of the quest list for open world games, and The Witcher 3 is no exception. So, do tell, why are you wandering around aimlessly(Unless that was your intention, in which case why complain)? Why not just track the main quest and ignore everything else, that way you wont be bothered by all those open world side-quests and collectibles that seem to bore you so(recommend you play on easy or normal b/c without the extra xp and items you might hoave trouble later on).

You know why Witcher 3’s winning awards? Cause CDRed made a kick ass game but also cause they werent’ greedy with it. Even the regular version of the game (from Amazon anyway) has the map and compendium and whatnot that’s in the collector’s edition. Except for the two big ones, all the DLC is FREE…….

True. I even got the collectors edition at the same price that the common one was…
Great game, great story, graphics, solid engine, fun combat (haven’t played Bloodborne, Dark Souls kinda game makes me want to kill anyone… also the loading screens I’ve heard sucked), 14 free DLCs… replay value.. name it… the game was flawless like it or not

ì really wanna play boodborne’s story… but i’m kinda not interested in being destroyed by the cpu every time i try to play it… is it as hard as i hear or can a casual player expect to still have a good time without dying over and over?

If you’re interested, I’d say go for it! Like From’s other games, Bloodborne is unforgiving… but it isn’t cheap. Don’t expect to be able to blindly run through an area without getting punished, but if you respect the game and take it seriously you’ll be rewarded.

It depends a lot on you, Eaglex. The FromSoft games reward patience and thought and learning so if you can do that, you can minimize your dying but you have to also accept that you will die, probably a lot. Even someone who has played all the Soulsian games can still get killed if your attention waivers. I love FromSoft games and DS3 is my most anticipated game, after The Last Guardian.

I’m pretty sure nobody can expect to have a GOOD time with these games. They offer gamers a way to indulge in masochism. I don’t find hurting myself fun, so I don’t enjoy souls games, even though they’re not REALLY that hard overall… if you DO enjoy pain and masochism, then here’s the game series for you.

You’re not going to get destroyed by the CPU. Bloodporne, as with any Souls game, is as hard as you make it to be. There are several ways of outsmarting the CPU you just need to pay attention to these and actually find situations where you can apply them in game.

+Seluhir You’re probably unfamiliar with the Souls community if that’s how you view these games. In terms of masochistic tendencies, I think games with random and more varied outcomes, or 90% of the gaming these days, is more masochistic than any souls game. The beauty of Souls is in the consistency and the combat; also the atmosphere and world design. No other game from recent memory comes close in this regard.

This is a rare sight,seeing a winner that really deserves everything…all the categories that Witcher 3 won were more than well deserved there was no other choice,the others were there simply to not leave Witcher 3 as the only choice but Witcher 3 did all those with magnificence.Amazing writing,the soundtrack is magically composed way past superb with not even a single bad song plus fit to every situation in the game…they were one of the best ever in a video game so let alone in 2015.
And Hearts of Stone ha! its the best DLC ever made…being even better than Left Behind and Burial at Sea.Witcher 3 is by (light years) far the best PS4 game…and only UC4 can take that crown,if not Witcher 3 will remain the best PS4 game for years to come if not forever.And of course its needless to say that CDPR wins the best studio of the year…they really showed what a group of talented people is capable of.

Still…seeing B.O 3 as a honorable mention in the best PS4 game,seeing it as the best online when it clearly was Battlefront and seeing bethesda and fallout 4 ahead of Kojima Productions and Phantom Pain well…it boggles one’s mind.
Also lol for not seeing UC4 as the most anticipated because it was on 2015 polls…just lol.

I would have to disagree, mainly in terms of the soundtrack. and even in terms of the story. Soundtrack was forgettable, and doesn’t hold a candle to Bloodporne or even Life is Strange. Story is well mainstream, and a lot of it is underwhelming. I think they need to clarify what they mean by the story though. Is it just the main quest? If so, then I guess Witcher 3 wins, but only just. The side quests in Witcher 3 were pretty bad story wise, and a lot of it left a bad impression.

I voted for Bloodborne. I played Witcher 2 on another platform and hated it. Hated everyone in it except Yennifer. But W3 was on sale for only $25 during one of the holiday sales so I got it. I hope to try playing it sometime this year.

Look I’m not saying witcher 3 was bad, but it definitely does not deserve the massive praise its gotten. There were a lot of good games this year so seeing witcher win almost every category saddens me.

Well… I’m really disappointed with these results. Not a single game that won is one that I would consider to be deserving of any award save carsoccer.

A couple of the second place winners are pretty deserving…

It’s just sad that most of the people voting on these never gave a lot of games a try.

Also, it’s kindo f unfortunate that Trails of Cold Steel came out so late. Hard to get votes if you come out halfway through the voting… but it is unquestionably the best game of the year in terms of story, soundtrack, and game design. By a pretty significant margin.

not a single jrpg. no wonder plus is going downhill. its because these dont make much sense. yeah i can see cod for multiplayer, but thats just for shooting people. mindless drones i say. im anticipating star ocean.

Oh, and the Dark Souls series, is good. But its not hard at all. Just take it slow learn the boss attacks. walla, your ready for all bosses. BUT they all have different attacks so take it slow. Bloodbornes no different. Go in slow. Timings the key. Its not hard.

You say that as if it’s a bad thing. Difficulty was never the intention of Souls, originally. The beauty of souls games simply come from how well executed and constant the combat is, and how atmospheric the overall world is. Compare Bloodporne to to the Witcher 3. One has separate movesets just for the combat, and you have no control over when these will trigger. Also pretty terrible and bullet spongey boss design and bosses designed to nerf the most unique thing to do the game. It really boggles my mind why developers feel the need to design bosses that way. Why is this boss not affected by Aard? Or why doesn’t he get damaged by Igni? This is just the worst way to design bosses, since you’re really nerfing what made your game unique in the first place. You mention that timings the key in the souls games and I’d have to agree. Timing is everything and that’s really part of how wonderful the combat system is. Timing in other games of similar genres is just floaty and inconsistent.

TL;DR Souls games are about the immaculate combat; not about the difficulty.